Red Shirts Storm ASEAN Summit

Red shirt protesters on Beach road in Pattaya, Thailand

While you may see  trucks full of red shirt protesters here and there throughout Pattaya for the most part they have kept to the Royal Cliff Resort area of town where the ASEAN summit is meeting.  Today the red shirts stormed one of the convention centers where Asian leaders were to meet this morning,  forcing Thailand to declare a state of emergency and cancel the ASEAN summit.

Red shirts on the move in PattayaThe Asian leaders had to be air lifted to a nearby military base. Over 1000 protesters crashed through the glass doors to the convention center wreaking havoc and destroying property while calling for Prime Minister Abhisit to step down.

With over 10,000 police officers and I’m sure a military equivalent contingent,  I don’t understand how this could have happened unless someone wanted it to happen. They should have never allowed the protesters to get as close to the resort as they did. Obviously they were ill prepared and picking Pattaya for the summit was a bad idea to begin with.

ASEAN summit sign on beach road in PattayaNow that the red shirts have embarrassed Prime Minister Abhisit well and good where will their cause take them now? At the beginning of the week at massive rallies in Bangkok the leaders of the red shirt movement stated that they would close down the airports at the end of the month. They have backed away from that statement in the last few days but with the success of the ASEAN summit protests one can only wonder what they feel empowered to do now.

The state of emergency declared by Abhisit earlier today for the area surrounding the summit gives the military the right to restore order, allows authorities to suspend civil liberties, bans public gatherings of more than five people and bars the media from reporting news that “causes panic.”

The red shirt protests could turn out to be a much bigger problem than many originally thought.

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    7 thoughts on “Thailand in the News Week Ending 03/06/10

    1. Thanks for the link to the FHM site.

      That was a pleasant way to kill some time.

      After careful consideration I think I would vote for number 10.

      She reminds me of my wife when I met her back in 1999.

    2. Well, one of your best posts ever, Talen! Hard to call, in terms of choice, but I’m going to go with No. 6 who did a nice sexy dance at the end of her interview.

      Funny how noses become narrower and tattoos disappear in static photos.

      .-= SiamRick´s last blog ..Canadian boys need to toughen up =-.

    3. Talen 6 & 9 keeps coming into my head every time I take a look, don’t ask me why.

      There’s some real good lookers amongst them, all of them in fact but wouldn’t it be nice if a ‘real girl next door was included.’

      I’m talking about one of those real Thai girls. Dark skinned with a beautiful smile. If you showed the FHM line up to a neutral person and said where do these lot come from, Thailand probably wouldn’t get a second thought. Nice girls but a bit too ‘TV soap’ looking to me, but pushed and I’ll pick number 10.

      Has Catherine been on the beer because I can’t recall any mention of China in your post.

      .-= Martyn´s last blog ..Turning Back the Years =-.

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